Lookout launches free security app for iOS

Since it was founded in 2009, San Francisco startup Lookout Mobile Security has grown faster than its peers by smartly securing devices on the Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone operating systems. The big missing piece in their portfolio was Apple’s iOS — and that changes today.

Lookout, whose software has been installed on more than 12 million devices around the world, today announced an app for iOS — and it’s free. Lookout, as the app is known, provides users with three core benefits:

Missing device location. Lookout can find a lost or stolen phone and make it start screaming, even if the phone is set to silent.

Security features: a “system adviser” checks to see if your phone has the latest version of OS and whether it should be updated; another utility alerts you when you are browsing on an unsecured WiFi network; and location services walk you through how your apps are using your location data, letting you tweak the settings to your specifications.

Contact backup and restore. If you ever inadvertently delete a contact, you can restore it right from the app.

Lookout’s new security app for iOS

Because Lookout works across platforms, you can also manage multiple devices from the company’s website. (Or restore contacts from an Android onto your new iPhone.)

The app looks similar to the company’s popular Android app but leaves out some of that version’s core features, like scanning new apps for malware and a safe browsing mode that checks websites for phishing scams. In large part, this is because those haven’t been problems on Apple’s platform, says Kevin Mahaffey, Lookout’s co-founder and chief technical officer. At the same time, a company survey found that 93 percent of iPhone users reported concerns about the security of data on their phones: clearly, there’s a market opportunity.

Mahaffey notes that millions of people still won’t bank online because of pervasive security fears.

“We need to fix that,” he said last week in a conference room in the company’s SoMa offices. “Nobody wants people to be fearful and uncertain about their mobile phones. We want to say, take the steps to protect yourself and then have fun with your phone.”

As with their Android app, Lookout is likely to eventually unveil a monthly subscription service for users who want added protections. But that would likely be geared toward power users.

“The philosophy we have is, 90 percent of people should be extremely happy with the free app,” Mahaffey said.